This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
My horn became intermittent, and stopped working. The car will not pass state inspection. It was diagnosed as a faulty clock spring. The dealership stated that this was a common failure on Subaru's, especially those that had the Takata airbag replacement recall. They said there was no TSB or recall for the part. I reached out to Subaru customer service who said that due to the age and mileage on my car, there was nothing they could do to assist replacing the part.
On a handful of occasions while driving, suddenly the car detects an object in front of the car that it believes I will hit. The beeping and object collision detection message appears on my dash. On all these occasions, there has never been on object. One time it automatic to control the vehicle before causing an accident. I don-??t remember exactly when this started happening but I thankfully engaged my brakes. This happened while I was on a highway. Luckily, no car was riding closely behind me so I was able it was 2 years ago. There is an option to turn off the detection sensor, but this must be done every time the car is turned on, and I-??m afraid I will forget. Moreover, the safety feature being turned off means I don-??t have that feature to detect real objects. My biggest concern is that one day I-??ll be driving at a higher speed, such as on a highway, and the car will detect an object, engage the brakes and cause me to be in an accident. I can make my car available for inspection upon request. I have not spoken to a local Subaru dealer or independent service center about this yet. My vehicle has not been inspection by the manufacturer, police, or insurance reps yet. No warning lamps, messages or other similar symptoms have occurred. However, this morning my car did auto-start on its own twice and this is the first time I-??ve noticed this.
While driving near my home on June 5, 2021, the vehicle simply shut off and simultaneously all the warning lights flashed. I was unable to restart the vehicle after two or three tries. I called a tow service. About an hour later, before the tow truck arrived, I turned the key again, and the car restarted. This occurred in the middle of the roadway and I was lucky no vehicle was being behind me, as a collision could have happened. A local auto repair shop looked at the computer code and found one for a cracked gas cap. The mechanic replaced the gas cap, but stated that it could not have caused the car to cease running. I took the car to a Subaru dealer on June 14, 2021, but the service consultant stated that looking for the problem would be like "going down a rabbit hole" and told me to continue to drive the car until another incident happened.
- Peotone, IL, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
Backup camera shows blue screen and backup guide lines but no camera image when transmission is placed in reverse. Occurs intermittently. Can occur either when vehicle is stationary (e.g., immediately on putting car in reverse) or in the middle of backing up. Sometimes camera image will come back on momentarily or not at all. This particular vehicle has the camera display integrated with the rear view mirror. However, the cause of the fault is unknown to me, and I have not been able to identify a pattern of occurrence. Camera image is clear and crisp when it does appear so the problem is presumably either software related or perhaps a wiring fault. Started occurring several years ago.
Took it home from dealer and the electronic parking brake would not turn on. The brake light was also blinking. A couple days later, on the way to dealer, I stopped at a gas station and turned on the electric parking brake. It worked this time, but when I got in the car to drive, the electric parking brake wouldn't turn off. I was stuck. There was no way to move it. I was blocking the gas pump for about an hour waiting for a two truck. Tow truck driver had difficulty loading vehicle and taking off vehicle because the parking brake was on and it was an AWD meaning none of the wheels can move.
2013 Outback limited 3.6R bought new and has 40K miles. On 3 occasions over the past 5 months, the vehicle can't catch 2nd gear and revs high and then a heavy jolt physically felt and a loud clunk. Have taken it to Subaru service 3 times and they cannot reproduce the problem. Even after flushing transmission fluid and relearning the transmission, and vehicle did it the same day driving home after picking the vehicle up from relearning the transmission. This is aggravating, stressful, and dangerous. Subaru needs to own up and address a known issue, and do a recall.
The contact owns a 2013 Subaru Outback. While driving various speeds, the brake, windshield wiper fluid, cruise control, and check engine warning indicators illuminated. The contact stated that the emergency brake engaged independently and the vehicle failed to drive. The contact stated that the failure also occurred on other occasions. The vehicle was taken to Subaru of orange park (located at 7023 blanding blvd, jacksonville, fl 32244, (855) 851-7200) where it was diagnosed and an unknown failure code was located. The vehicle was repaired, but the contact did not know the specifics. The contact believed there was an unknown sensor failure. The contact stated that the failure recurred. The contact planned to tow the vehicle to Subaru of orange park. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 30,000.
While driving my Subaru Outback 2013 2.5I premium model, brake light, cruise control, check engine light started flashing in the dashboard. Took it to a dealer and I was told that it was body valve failure inside transmission. It was fixed (Subaru paid $1,500 and I contributed $300 for the repair) by a Subaru dealer. Yet, ten days later the same three lights went on. The dealer said it was different problems, catalytic converter and O2 sensors, quoted $1,800. Left the dealer without fixing the problems. It seems that my car was not the only one with this type of electrical problem. I saw the exactly same complaints posted by other user in Virginia (refer to NHTSA id number: 11204834).
While driving the car on a city street the brake light, cruise control, check engine light started flashing in the dashboard. Cruise control would not work during this. Car seems to run fine but warning lights continue to flash
I took my car in for airbag recall, the brake light indicator flashes on/off on dash, intermittent. Service dept could not replicate at first, discovered electronic parking brake component faulty. Parking brake could engage while car is in drive or fail on hill. Charging me 1100 for repair, says its not under warranty or recall. This is same defect/recall on 2015 model Outback. Dealer says no recall for 2013 model outbcak. I dispute this.
Elderly woman nearly ran us off the road. Horn wouldn't work. Barely avoided crash. Reliable Subaru in springfield, mo charged us $117 for diagnostic and didn't fix: No part on hand. If I had okayed, it would have cost another $548 to repair, total of $665 to fix what I regard as a safety issue. Art fletcher Subaru in joplin, mo repaired for $237. My opinion: This is a safety issue that Subaru should pay for. Horn problems with Subaru are commonplace.
Have replaced the low beam H7 bulb 5 times this year and has even blow less than 1 hour after fixed by a Subaru dealership. Tail lights have been replaced 3 times in 8 month. High beam lights 3 times in the past 12 months. Fixtures twice. Charred from extreme amp spikes in wires. Now to top it all off entire wiring harness for passenger side is out.
The contact owns a 2013 Subaru Outback. While the vehicle was in operation, the check engine, ABS, and oil warning indicators illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed as a locked up duty solenoid circuit failure. The part needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 108,610.
Upon noticing a blown 3rd tail light(one of the tail lights on the rear hatch/door of the wagon, ) I disassembled and found that the sockets on both sides(left and right 3rd tail-light sockets) were scorched around where the bulbs fit into them. The discoloration was brown/black and was present not only on the socket with the blown bulb but also the other, working side. Dealer replaced blown bulb and made no comment on scorched bulb sockets. It almost appears as if they were so heated they were ready to melt or burn the plastic. Car has been in service for 27 months and has 27K mostly city driving on it. Happy to provide photos of the affected sockets to anyone investigating or concerned.
Passenger side airbag indicator light and alarm go off whether passenger is in the seat or not. Intermittently, when I start the car, the indicator light flashes and then remains lit. If the car is driven in this state, the alarm sounds at speeds over 25/30 mph. Subaru doesn't know how to trouble shoot.
Prior to this incident, I had noticed several occasions where the engine would suddenly rev for no reason while I was driving at a slow speed or braking. This incident happened on Dec 2, 2014 at approx. 7:40am eastern time. As I was approaching the security check-in gate at my job, traveling about 10 mph, I depressed the brake to slow down and wait for the gate to open. As I was slowing down, the engine suddenly rev'd to maximum and the car accelerated and lurched forward. I was not able to stop or control the car and it crashed through the security barrier gate. No one was injured and there was no damage done to the car, but the metal arm of the gate was severely bent. I took the vehicle to my Subaru dealer several days later to be inspected and report the incident. The dealer said there was a problem with the engine control module (ECM) and updated the software. Since then, the car has run smoothly with no further acceleration problems. The ECM update also seemed to solve a problem I had experienced where the car had difficulty starting up.
With the eyesight system, Outback may start braking when you are coming up on another car or trying to pass it, even though you are moving away from the vehicle to pass it and are not endanger of an accident. Very annoying at times and forces you to disable it but might be worthwhile if it didn't go off just from coming near vehicles. I suppose they don't want it to go off too late. The seat/headrest is the bigger problem.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Weymouth, MA, USA